Author John MacLach-lan Gray has a new story to incorporate into his writing. The part-time Coast resident and guest speaker at the Festival of the Written Arts (FOWA) was marooned in Horseshoe Bay with no way to get to the opening reception in Sechelt Aug. 14 on time, when his wife took things into her own hands.
Cruising the cars in line for the next ferry sailing, she spotted two women reading books, asked if they were going to the festival, and when they said yes, she asked if they would mind delivering her husband to the grounds. (Our heroine arrived in her own car sometime later that evening.)
"People are passionate about this [festival]. We were sold out for Michael Ondaatje in the first 15 minutes of ticket sales on May 22," said Jane Davidson, producer for the festival.
A decision by B.C. Ferries to commandeer one of route three's vessels to replace a broken down ferry from the Nanaimo run was the cause of the problems and left ticket holders stranded in line-ups in Horseshoe Bay.
Several people who planned to attend the FOWA opening night, Thursday, Aug. 14, that included guest speaker and award winning author Ondaatje made it only in time to hear him close out his speech.
"It was so sad to see people charging up the hill [at Rockwood] only to catch the end of it. A lot of people came exhausted, hot and stressed," said Davidson. "It had a big effect on us. We have two vessels and this feels like a lack of regard for visitors and the community."
Jack Pope, spokesman for the Sunshine Coast Tourism Partnership, said he was concerned about visitors, guest speakers and vendors getting to the Coast for the festival and craft fair in Hackett Park. After he received a mid-morning email that alerted him of the 1:35 p.m. cancellation, Pope started to watch the B.C. Ferries website to see what was happening. Bookings from the cancelled sailing were pushed ahead to the 2:15 ferry, which was full by 1 p.m. Davidson said six of the writers attending the festival had reservations that ended up on that ferry or they would not have made it for the reception.
By 3 p.m., the 4:30 ferry was already at 70 per cent capacity. In the end, people ended up waiting for hours to get to the Sunshine Coast.
Deborah Marshall, director of media relations, corporate development for B.C. Ferries said the decision to pull the Queen of Coquitlam was made because "traffic was backed up so far down Stewart Avenue it was obstructing traffic."
She also said there was a 600 car overload around 1 p.m. at Horseshoe Bay.
"There were overloads at Horseshoe Bay going over to Langdale, but not near the magnitude of the line ups at Departure Bay," she said.
Marshall checked with operations and said they were aware of the festival going on. She said they keep a calendar of events in the various communities they serve, as they can potentially impact traffic volumes on the ferries.
"We certainly apologize to our customers on the Sunshine Coast for any inconvenience the sailing cancellations caused," Marshall said.
